ON THE MANUSCRIPTS OF GOD 



ney out of Egypt, either found no water at 

 all, or found it too bitter to drink. The 

 sympathetic reader finally takes on their 

 symptoms, and finds solid satisfaction in a 

 later record which chronicles the stop at 

 Elim, where there were "twelve wells of 

 water and threescore and ten palm trees." 

 Even more pleasant is the exultant descrip- 

 tion with which Moses cheered the weary 

 hearts of the chosen people: "For the Lord 

 thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a 

 land of brooks of water, of fountains and 

 depths that spring out of valleys and hills." 

 Here we catch something more than the crass 

 recognition of the practical uses of water. 

 Moses was obviously a pragmatist with mar- 

 gins, for we feel in his description of the 

 promised land a distinctly poetic response 

 to the call of the many-voiced waters. 



The same response to the spiritual 

 glamour of water is felt in a fervid verse 

 in Judges: "The river Kishon swept them 

 away, that ancient river, the river Kishon" 

 Something almost like a suggestion of awe 

 is preserved in this record; it was not only 



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